JIS Services

Cabinet has approved an $81.2 million contract to a German firm, HP Gauff Ingenieure, to provide technical assistance for the supply of water to Milk River, Clarendon; Shettlewood, Hanover; Hope Bay, Portland, and Christiana/Spaldings in Manchester.The contract will involve the designing and supervision of the water supply system.
At a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House yesterday (October 6), Minister of Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman said the Ministry of Water and Housing had recognised the deficits that still existed in addressing the supply of potable water to rural Jamaica, and that over the years the Ministry had been working to deal with that issue.
He informed that Phase 1 of the Water Supply Project had been funded by the 6th European Development Fund (EDF), which addressed expansion of the supply of potable water to rural communities, and that the 8th EDF, National Indicative Programme, had provided a grant of 10 Million Euros or $700 million to continue the programme for the four communities.
The Minister explained, however, that while the grant funds had been earmarked for the rural water supply programme, the $81 million contract was for preliminary works to be done on the four major schemes, with the expectation that within three years, all four projects would have been completed.
“It is expected that as a result of this work, there will be an improved water supply in all four areas, in terms of the reliability of supply and the quality of water, as well as a 40 per cent reduction in unaccounted for water in the four supply zones,” he said.
Cabinet also approved a contract to T. Geddes Grant (Distributors) Limited for $26.9 million, to purchase commodities for the school feeding programme, which provides a cooked lunch for 261,000 beneficiaries in basic, primary and all-age schools, including junior high schools. The commodities to be purchased include tin foods, flour and rice.